Survey Concerning the Coloring Pattern for Lines on Pouches of One-dose Packages

Abstract

Objective: The act of adding a color line to a packaged paper, such as a red line after breakfast, has its own color scheme at each pharmacy/hospital. When patients must change doctors or pharmacists for reasons such as moving or a natural disaster, they may wind up taking the wrong medication because of the coloring pattern being different from before. We therefore conducted a survey concerning the coloring pattern for pouches of one-dose packages. Method: We conducted a survey via an online questionnaire for pharmacists from May 16 to 22, 2018. This survey was approved by the Ethics Review Board at Nagasaki Pharmaceutical Association (Chorinyaku 29-7). Results: Among 77 responses, 54.5% (n=42) set coloring rules according to the dosage. The most frequently used colors were red for after breakfast, yellow for after lunch, blue for after dinner and black for before going to bed. The questionnaire showed that 66.2% (n=51) favored unifying the coloring pattern, while 15.6% (n=12) were against such efforts. Discussion: Incidents have occurred due to a lack of a unified coloring pattern, and the number in favor of unifying the pattern was greater than that against. We thus concluded that unifying the coloring pattern is desirable.